The open road? Ya, she's never treated me wrong.

G'Day everyone.  Sorry its been so long since the last update but been a bit of everywhere since my ill-fated bus trip to Adelaide.  I made it back to Melbs without incident and had a phenomenal week with  friends touring museums and eating at delicious restaurants.  I went to a vegetarian restaurant that was in an old nunnery, it served all sorts of delicious food (think curry apples, amazing!) buffet style with no price fix, you just paid what you felt the meal was worth.  So you had homeless guys tossing in half a quid sitting next to young hipsters and old businessmen pitching in a $50.  A great night out.  That following weekend I got invited camping with Sam and Marion, who I had met in Halls Gap.  We met at Federal Station early in the morn then took off towards Mildura along the Murray River.  That first day was pretty nasty with massive rain, and we ended up paying for a spot at a caravan park just to have a dry spot to cook supper but then the next day it cleared off just as we hit a small state park.  The park was a unique ecosystem where fig trees randomly sprout out of desert dunes, a beautiful contrast.  It quit raining literally as we pulled up and everyone was delighted to get out of the confines of the car.  The girls pulled their shoes off and ran through the sand and Sam radiated contentment as she let go of all the tension from the long car ride at the simple feeling of sand between her toes and was the catalyst for Marion and I to follow suit. 

After the dunes we headed south away from the river to Hattah National Park where we made a great camp next to a very full lake.  Australia has received more rain since I arrived than they have in the last 4 years, trees had started growing out in the dry lake beds making it hard to appreciate the sunset on the lake but we still had a great fire and cooked a feast of curry, rice, and of course our own version of campfire curry apples which was phenomenal! We finished the evening watching "Shaun of the Dead" on my lappy in celebration of Halloween.  The next day we packed up and headed off to another park that boasted pink lakes.  Sure enough there were 5 lakes all pinkish in hue due to the massive salt content and unique sediments.  Over the last hundred years they mined the pink salt off the lakes as they dried out in the summer, removing something to the tune of 10,000 tons of salt off a 7 acre area.  Even though the operation was shut down and turned into a park there are still mountains of salt around each lake.  We chipped a bit off to use in our supper that night and it was definitely delicious.

Heading south we drove for several more hours giving me heaps of practice driving in the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road and but for 2 lapses where I turned into the wrong lane (no cars for miles, so no harm done :) ) I managed even with driving a manual with all the shifters on the wrong side of my body.  The next park was much drier but very beautiful.  We made camp then went for a short hike then came back and cooked more delicious food.  Sam is a wonderful cook and while it is hard for me to admit, even better than myself as she took my recipes and plans and immediately improved on them.  Marion was quite content to reap the effects of our combined culinary talents and we finished up supper with some really bad wine I mistakenly picked up while warming our toes in the fire and laying back looking at the southern constellations.

The next day we simply packed up and started the long drive back to Melbs randomly stumbling upon a neat little petting zoo in a small city park that had kangaroo, emus, peacocks, and goats with a nice playground for kids.  Once again I was amazed with how well Australian communities come together and work to provide simple amenities and sometimes unique features to their towns then open it up for all who may be passing through out of simple goodness.  I am pleased to say that it is so common that I have started taking it as granted as a sunny day or friendly smile.

Back in Melbs I only had time for a bit of food and sleep before I picked up a rental van and met my friend Ash for a road trip north.  www.standbyrelocs.com is a website for rental companies that need to have vehicles moved from point A to point B with in a certain time frame.  So I rented a campervan to go from Melbourne to Cairns but had to deliver it in  7 days.  We took off and I sidetracked us to go see the Snowy River Mountains.  I grew up watching "The Man from Snowy River" and you must watch it if you haven't yet.  The mountains are amazing and we camped next to a beautiful river an a valley nestled between two impressive snow caped mountains.  A waterfall fell into the river across from us and brook trout raised to insects while kanga's bounced by our camp.  The valley was an old cattle station and the house was unlocked letting just anyone to wander into this beautiful stone building with porches front and back.  It truly was a bit of heaven and I hated to leave as I knew i could spend months in the area and absolutely love it.  We bounced around the mountains then out around Sydney before cutting back to the coast.  I didnt bother with Sydney as the best I heard about the city was that the parties never stopped and it was the cheapest place to buy coke.  Since neither really appealed to me I set a route following mountains and random roads that the gps assured me actually led somewhere.  Sometimes the road would cease with pavement having me drive on narrow gravel roads around mountains and through switchbacks and through cow pastures where marsupials grazed next to bovines. 

One thing to note when traveling with hippies is that you can never expect them to actually have all that they need and sometimes to make the trip enjoyable you have to provide some essentials... like horse tranquilizers.   A few hours of blessed silence and your own music can mean alot when you are spending a week in a car :D.

Actually it wasnt near that bad as we both figured out the others idiocracies and compromised on music and we got along well.  Although when we pulled into Nimbin not only did Ash make me drive all day (Do you know why Helen Keller couldn't drive?.?.?) but do the dishes, laundry AND cook supper.  Definitely some reverse feminism that night (and since I am the one telling the story I can tell it the way that I want.. i mean the way it truly happened)

After the delicious supper I prepared we headed up into town and caught a cool band at the pub.  I should mention that Nimbin is a product of the 60's and hasnt changed much.  Hippies young and old wander the streets in a daze and everybody has a smile on their face.  Back to the pub we watched "The Floating Bridges" perform and loved what they did.  Think regge rock music with a didgeridoo mixed in to give it a true aussie feel.  After their set we drank with them on the patio being entertained by a drunk Welshman (since mothers read this I cant go into too much detail on that conversation) who was hilarious.  The blokes from the "Bridges" told us about a free music fest on the beach a bit north in a couple nights and invited us to meet up with them.  The next day Ash and I headed north west to the coast and ended up catching another random concert in the town of Coolum, QLD where we met more backpackers and locals and had a great time all the way around.  After a couple mixed drinks, which were sold premixed in cans and about as nasty as you would think, we went back to the van and ended up just camping in the ditch.  As we were one vehicle in 10 that never made it out of the ditch that night no one bothered us and we went to the beach to spend the morning.  I decided the beaches in Oz are a lot like the gay clubs in NYC (friends thought it would be funny to see how the South Dakota boy would handle it) as there were not near enough beautiful women and all the men had better abs than me.  So after a quick pout I enjoyed the sun and a good book then we headed up the road a few clicks where we met up with our mates from the "Bridges" and spent a wonderful afternoon on the beach listening to a free concert that the city puts on every 2 weeks.  Townies both blue collared and tattooed spread blankets on the sand and grass and enjoyed local bands.  The showcase was "Tijuana Cartel" who was absolutely phenomenal and had everyone up dancing. 

Because of the couple relaxed days we had lots of kilometers to make up and we were on the road by 5:30 am with the sunrise heading north.  I drove for 17 hours getting us to Home Hill which is another great community that not only has safe places to park for the night but clean and free bathrooms and showers.  After being behind the wheel for 17 hours I was a bit wigged out on caffeine and ecstatic to be out of the car.  Wandering around drinking a cup of wine to slow me down I was startled by a horrific sound coming from a tree over me and I looked up to see the branches shaking and a god awful sound coming from the dark shadows.  Backing away I kept an eye on the tree and was shocked to see a huge 3ft bat erupt from the dark branches, and as it flew over a nearby car a huge white bomb dropped from the leathery beast to splatter the car.  I expected to learn about strange things but never in my life did I want or expect to know what a giant, constipated bat sounded like.

The next morn we enjoyed a free hot shower (which is much rarer than a free hot meal!) and got on the road for the last little bit.  We made it no problems and checked into the hostel and rooms then dropped the car off at the rental place driving over 4,000 km in 6,5 days.  With spending 21 of the last 27 hours behind the wheel I jumped in the pool then just relaxed and got a good night sleep.  The hostel is great and I am now looking for a job to replentish my travel funds as I wait here for a friend from home to visit.  More stories to follow soon as tomorrow I do my first open water dive :)

I hope to see sharks...